2015

Good morning readers! As always, a lot happened in the political world this week. Enjoy our Sunday Grab Bag of shorter takes on a number of Iowa and national political topics: Buckle Up, Hillary, SNL is Back Finally, are Saturday Night Live political sketches going to be funny again? Last night’s certainly was, with the…

Martin O’Malley returned to central Iowa this week for multiple events and meetings to test out his potential presidential bid, all the while a reported Hillary Clinton weekend launch looms with new imminence. When Clinton announces on Sunday it will suck up all the oxygen in the news media for weeks. She’ll probably raise more…

As the race for the White House begins to heat up on the Democratic side, politically-engaged Iowans’ phones will soon start ringing with calls from potential presidential candidates. Which people are contacted and swayed will go a long way in determining how well each candidate’s Iowa organization develops. Well-known names are nice to put on…

Gary Kroeger made it official last night: he is a candidate for Iowa’s 1st Congressional District, set to face Monica Vernon, Ravi Patel and possibly Swati Dandekar for the Democratic nomination. He announced his campaign to a crowd of supporters in Cedar Falls last night. Kroeger is looking to position himself as the most progressive…

Calling whomever is elected President in 2016 the “last best shot to avoid a climate disaster for our children,” top strategists from NextGen Climate Action laid out plans to actively engage early in the presidential primary campaign. On a Monday conference call with reporters they announced the environmental issues they see as crucial to America’s…

A life of political advocacy and being a single mother to a gifted child has well-prepared Natasha Newcomb in her new plan to run for Des Moines School Board. She is a candidate for School Board District 3, campaigning for the election in September. Starting Line enjoys highlighting younger Democrats running for office or who…

Good morning readers! As always, a lot happened in the political world this week. Enjoy our Sunday Grab Bag of shorter takes on a number of Iowa and national political topics: Rod Blum’s Buddies Ted Cruz traveled across eastern Iowa with freshman Republican Congressman Rod Blum close at his side for three separate events on…

Ted Cruz took his post-announcement tour to Iowa this week, hitting Sioux City, Dubuque, Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids and Des Moines during Wednesday and Thursday. Starting Line followed the Senator for the last of those three events. Here’s what I took away from it: 1. Cruz can certainly pack a room. As the only formally-announced…

Former Congressman Bruce Braley has reportedly moved to Denver, Colorado to join a top law firm based there. The news was reported Thursday evening, and marks the final chapter of the fallout from last year’s U.S. Senate race between him and Joni Ernst. It’s not completely uncommon for losing candidates to move away from the…

With his early campaign launch last week, Ted Cruz has captured the majority of the media’s presidential race attention the last two weeks, for better or for worse. Actually, mostly for worse for the Texas Senator. And that’s a big problem for him, because if his quixotic campaign to be the ultra-conservative hero who actually…